[Publib] Re: Terrorists as library users

[Matthew Simon-pre-DESIGN Planning Associates]

In the early 1980s', as Chief Librarian at Queens College in the City University New York, I came up on the FBI's radar. One of our students, Leakh Bough, had been recruited by the KGB to collect information of potential intelligence value by using library sources and my library was selected as the site for his training.  This kid reported his recruitment to the FBI, which turned him into a double agent.  (This story was documented by New York magazine, if are interested in reading about this sorry and shameful episode of American counterterrorism).  And the FBI then used this incident (that yielded nothing to the USSR) as a pretext to try to obtain access to the circulation records of American Libraries under a hastily passed Library Information Act.

I was attacked by all manner of "patriots" who publicly suggested that I should have been more vigilant in looking over the shoulders of our 15,000 students and 1,000 faculty.  And hundreds of librarians found themselves pressured to comply with the baseless requests to release patron library use data.  The American Library Association, to its enormous and enduring credit, challenged and ultimately prevailed against these fishing expeditions.  

I would be the last to suggest to anyone that she doesn't have the right to withhold her membership dollars.  But I certainly cannot think of another organization, anywhere that will take our side when the soldiers of repression and intimidation come knocking at our houses, our neighbors and our libraries.

The notion advanced by your terrified correspondent, that the terrorists' purported use of the library had anything at all to do with the attacks is nothing more than another feverish justification by this White House  to intrude on basic freedoms. It has about as much validity as suggesting that they might have gotten tips on how to fly an airliner from going to the movies.

Here's my modest suggestion for your correspondent:  Contact your local newspaper.  Suggest that they publish the circulation records of ALL of your patrons, because one or more of them may be a terrorist.  Annouce that you believe this should be done as a public service on behalf of " national security."  And then watch your career implode.  

Matthew Simon, President
pre-DESIGN Planning Associates, Inc.